Geographical information systems (GIS), computerized mapping systems that enable a user to visualize geographical information such as topographical, natural or man made borders, rivers, lakes, and the like have been around for many years. A computerized map file, such as Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) geodatabase file format, comprises one or more layers of geographical information which, when rendered together on a computer screen, shows a user a cognizable map. Each layer may provide different information relating to geography or contain geospatial information such as statistical, demographic, and other like information relating to the geography. For example, a world map may have five or more layers. One layer may include geographical information to render the borders of the world's continents. A second layer may include geographical information to render the borders of the world's countries. A third layer may include geographical information to render the borders of states in a country. A fourth layer may include geographical information to render the borders of counties in a state. A fifth layer may include geographical information to render the borders of cities within the counties. Other layers may include population distributions, school districts, locations of government offices, and the like.
Collaborative software is application software that integrates work on a single project by several concurrent users at separated workstations. In its modern form, it was pioneered by Lotus Software with the popular Lotus Notes application running in connection with a Lotus Domino server. Collaborative software allows participants to have collaborative interactions which allow participants to alter a collaboration entity such as a document or other common deliverable. Typically, collaborative software applications are limited to allowing users to jointly edit a document, a presentation, a spreadsheet, or other flat file. Collaborative software applications may provide a virtual repository which allows data to be replicated, stored, and synchronized on multiple computers operating in a peer-to-peer relationship. A member of a virtual repository is a user who has been assigned and given permission to share information in the virtual repository. For example, Groove® Virtual Office provides a concept called a “workspace” which allows users, who have been assigned to the same workspace, to share and synchronize files which have been added to the workspace.
Computerized maps, on the other hand, may contain voluminous and complex information. Rather than merely revealing magnified information when zooming in on documents, presentations, spreadsheets, when a user zooms in on a computerized map, additional information is revealed to the user. For example, a user viewing the map of the United States may see the borders of each state and the country's borders. However, when the user zooms into a particular city street, the viewer may render points of interest to the user such as particular stores, gas stations, parks, and the like. Additionally, a user may scroll a map, for example of the world, which has no defined beginning or end. Consequently, a map file has to contain a lot of information that may or may not be rendered depending on a user's interaction with a map.
As noted in “IT Roadmap to a GeoSpatial Future,” The National Academies Press, 2003, many problems in combining GIS with collaborative software applications have been identified. This book recognizes that “there has been no attention to how the new collaborative features might be integrated with geospatial analysis activities and only limited attention to the role of interactive visualizations in facilitating cooperative work.” Furthermore, this work recognizes that the volume and complexity of the geospatial information will make it increasingly hard to use effectively. This book recognizes that many research efforts have centered on the creation of virtual spaces but have not determined how to enable navigation through virtual spaces in a collaborative manner.